


#1: Fulfilling a Childhood Wish

by JunkMail



Series: A Better Victory [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, Future AU, Gen, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 10:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15555378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JunkMail/pseuds/JunkMail
Summary: 'Summer wasn’t an idiot, she knew how much blood someone of her size could afford to lose before they succumbed to blood-loss. And the numb feeling spreading throughout her limbs wasn’t a great indicator either, probably something to do with the wound she sustained from the Faunus’ scorpion tail.’Two Huntresses travel back in time with the goal of changing the future for the better, forging a better outcome. But before they do so, they will fulfil an old childhood wish, a selfish wish.





	#1: Fulfilling a Childhood Wish

**“And thus kindly, I scatter.” – Summer Rose**

* * *

Summer let out a groan of pain as she returned to consciousness, the action irritating her bone-dry throat and drawing out a rasping cough that rattled something uncomfortable in her chest.

Pulling her eyes open and blinking rapidly, feeling confused, she had to wait a brief moment for her eyes to focus themselves. When they did, Summer realised she was staring down at her lap, her legs sprawled out awkwardly in front of her.

Attempting to lift her head and take a look around, Summer found herself gasping in pain as she felt a spike of what felt like lightning dust arced its way up from the base of her spine and crashed into the back of her skull.

As nausea crawled at the back of her throat and black spots exploded across her vision, Summer was pretty sure she blacked out for a few moments.

With ragged breaths, Summer kept her head still as she attempted to wait out the pain, and after what felt like an eternity, the pain did eventually began to fade back into a dull throbbing sensation at the base of her neck.

Her entire body hurt, and after she managed to level out her breathing, Summer was careful to look around using only her eyes, taking in the white yet barren landscape around her.

The biting cold was quick to reaffirm its presence, and Summer felt cold water seeping in through her clothes from where she was leaning her back against something solid, most likely a dead tree if the other wooden stumps surrounding her were any indication.

Confusion was quick to assert itself, her surroundings looking totally unfamiliar to her, and Summer struggled to remember what had happened to leave her in such a state.

Off to her right and out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the broken remains of _Rosa Chinensis_ , the sight of her beloved weapon’s extendable blades lying fragmented in the snow sparked the beginnings of a memory.

Tugging on that thread, Summer let out a sharp breath as she was transported back. The memory of herself and Qrow, the two of them standing in front of Professor Ozpin’s desk at Beacon, the millennia old wizard looking unusually tired as he informed them of the Spring Maiden’s apparent rebellion and subsequent disappearance.

She remembered herself and Qrow agreeing to go and assist a Hunter Team in tracking her down, with Haven’s own headmaster apparently unable to spare any teams with the necessary clearance to help them with the search. Lionheart apparently rather adamant that Summer herself be one of the people Ozpin send to help.

Summer remembered boarding the airship that would take them to Haven, of arriving and meeting up with Team COPR at Haven before almost immediately setting out to track down the wayward Maiden.

They had spent most of the first few days scouting the nearest towns and villages, asking people for possible sightings or likely places she may go.

After unsuccessfully locating any possible hints as to the Maiden’s location or goals, they had decided to move their search further out, into the nearby farmland. The community’s further out from Haven hadn’t given them much better luck, when they had caught a break with a local farmer, who had given them a possible sighting.

They had headed out immediately in order to try and keep pace, which was why they had been ambushed at night.

A pair of Nevermores, the two bird-like Grimm had attacked them whilst they had been travelling through a forest between farmlands. Dusk providing them the necessary cover to strike from stealth.

The fact that they were so close to civilisation had been unexpected, most older Grimm were smart enough to stay away from heavily populated areas, but the small hoard of Beowolfs, Ursai and several Beringels that had followed a few minutes later had been more than surprising. Summer had been forced to unleash her Silver Eyes in order to thin the Grimm’s numbers to more manageable levels.

Unfortunately, it was only after she had done so that figures in black and purple armour had appeared from the shadows, cutting through their group’s defences and targeting her directly, isolating her from Qrow and the rest of their group.

She had desperately tried to fend off both Grimm and her mysterious ambushers, who seemed to have skillsets that directly challenged her own. But they had steadily pushed her further and further from her allies, driven her deeper into the nearby forest land. It had been then that she had realised that the entire ordeal had most likely been a trap, set up by one of **her** pawns.

Blinking back into the present, the sound of approaching footsteps made Summer instinctively try to look up, and the sudden onslaught of pain made stars explode across her vision and darkness to creep upon her peripherals.

In the distance, she could hear the sounds of gunfire. Most likely, Qrow and the rest of their group were still fighting the Grimm, which gave her some small glimmer of hope to cling on to. That she might still be saved.

The sound of footsteps crunching through snow stopped a few meters from her, and as her vision returned, Summer blinked up at the two dark figures looming above her.

Dread quickly replaced the faint hope that had built in her soul, as she quickly identified them as the remaining two members of her ambushers.

There’d originally been four, but one had stayed to fight off Qrow, while she had killed one of them herself, before she had been incapacitated. There was a brief flash, a memory, of one of her arrows embedding themselves in a short man’s neck, which crossed her mind’s eye before she forced herself to focus back on her present situation.

The masked woman on the right was rather clearly a scorpion Faunus, the yellow-black tail coiled around her waist making it obvious, whilst the one on the left was a horrendously large male, Human or Faunus she didn’t know, who had extendable serrated steel claws attached to his wrists.

Summer recognised the Faunus, the woman’s tail had some kind of poison in its tip that she hadn’t been able to avoid, but it was the massive Brute that was responsible for her current condition. She remembered her Dust infused arrows ricocheting off of his Aura without him showing so much as a flicker of strain, followed some time thereafter by a crushing blow to the chest that had resulted in her blacking out.

Breathing through gritted teeth, Summer desperately attempted to summon her Semblance, to phase-shift through the tree she was leaning against and gain some distance from her attackers.

But her Aura was gone, drained completely, and her body refused to respond to her commands, the best she could accomplish was a faint flicker of distortion.

Crouching down, the Faunus woman pulled down the black mask that had been hiding her face, revealing poisonous yellow eyes. “You have a powerful soul.” The Faunus informed her, “And a strong enough will to wield it.”

The woman smiled, sharp teeth glinting in the early moonlight.

“I can see now why my Goddess wishes your life extinguished.”

Oh Gods, she wasn’t going to get out of this was she? There would be no last second rescue this far out in the wilderness, no Raven to teleport her to safety or ferry reinforcements to her position.

This was it.

This was where she was going to die.

Desperately running through every conceivable plan she could think of, Summer tried in vain to conjure a way to get herself away. Her body still refused to act on her command.

She was utterly helpless.

Opening her mouth, Summer tried to speak. For the first time in her life, she attempted to plead, beg, for her life.

She didn’t want to die, not now. Not with her two beautiful daughters sitting at home, waiting for her to return to them. Not with both Tai and Yang still haunted by the void Raven had left in her wake.

In the distance, the gunfire that had given her a glimmer of hope had begun to stutter, those that had managed to survive this long most likely beginning to succumb to the Grimm, and along with them the last true hope she had of rescue.

Summer wondered if Qrow was still fighting, searching for her amidst the small horde of Grimm that had ambushed them, or if the blue haired woman who had kept him from helping her had somehow managed to kill him.

She didn’t know. May never know.

“Please,” Summer rasped, in one last, desperate bid for survival. “Please. I can’t… I don’t want to die, not now. I have daughters, please!”

The Faunus, however, looked unmoved by her pleading. Instead sighing in what Summer thought sounded like _disappointment_.

“And here we go,” She said, rolling her eyes, “No matter how strong, they always **_beg_**.” She practically spat the word, she continued as if talking to an infant. “Why should you having children make me hesitate? It’s like you believe predators should give mercy to their prey.”

“Then get it over with.” The Brute next to her interrupted, his voice startlingly soft for such a large and muscle-bound man. “We don’t have time for you to make one of your speeches.”

Standing to face the larger man, the Faunus woman looking ready to start an argument, when there was a loud **_crack-boom_**. Startling all three of them, like distant thunder. The distinctive sound of a bullet breaking the sound barrier, followed almost immediately after by the sound of Fire Dust exploding broke through the air.

In the distance, Summer watched as flashes of yellow, like bursts of brilliant sunlight, lit up the sky, followed soon after by the sounds of Fire Dust exploding.

The once faltering gunfire from before seemed to come alive again, reinvigorated by whatever was assisting them, and the flickering crackle picked up again into a dull roar of continuous fire.

The sharp **_crack-booms_** of thunder continued as well, punctuated by the death cries of various creatures of Grimm. Summer belatedly realised that somehow, someway, reinforcements must have arrived.

Both the Faunus and the Brute had turned their heads at the sounds, and as the flashes of light and gunfire continued to grow in sound and frequency, the Brute of a man grunted in what sounded like approval. “That was faster than we expected.”

The Faunus sighed, “It doesn’t matter, let’s finish up with this crying bitch and get out of here.”

Turning back to face her, the Faunus gave her a sadistic little grin, before drawing a long and wickedly curved knife from its sheath on her belt and stepping forwards.

Summer felt her heart drop, and once more she desperately attempted to call forth her semblance, to buy time for the reinforcements to find her.

But the previous fight had taken everything she had, and this time she didn’t even muster a flicker, her Aura completely drained.

“It’s a shame I won’t get to take my time with you,” The Faunus woman said as she casually spun her knife in her hand, “That bleached outfit of yours could use some colo-”

Summer blinked, and two things happened at once.

The Faunus woman crouched back down in front of her and pressed the knife to her throat, Summer belatedly realising that the woman intended on slitting her throat.

And then there was a **_whump-crack_** of displaced air… and the Faunus was gone. The large curved knife that had been pressing against her neck left to fall harmlessly into her lap. 

Blinking rapidly, Summer glanced around with only her eyes, but was unable to locate the woman, only… were those rose petals falling to the ground?

At the sound of movement, Summer looked back to the Brute, who had a similarly surprised expression on his face, the large man backing away from her slightly as he looked around for his comrade.

There was the sound of metal clashing against metal, off somewhere to Summer’s left. The familiar sound of blade meeting blade, but the pain in her neck made turning to look in that direction impossible.

The Brute had no such problem, the man turning in the direction the sounds of battle were coming from, tracking them as the fight moved clockwise around the edge of the clearing, staying just beyond Summer’s ability to see.

Apparently growing tired of waiting, the Brute began moving to investigate with an irritated grunt. Only to stop dead as there was a horrifically sounding wet **_crunch_** , followed by a pain-filled shriek that pierced through the air, Summer wincing as it only grew in pitch and volume, before being abruptly cut off by the sound of a solitary gunshot.

Twisting his head to look around, Summer watched as the Brute searched the edges of the clearing for the source of the sound. Long serrated metal claws, which had been previously held on each his forearms as protective bracers, extended out to their full lengths.

Shaped like oversized bear claws, the blades themselves were housed in a pair of gauntlets that were as black as the rest of his armour, and in almost any other situation, Summer might have been impressed with their simple yet effective nature.

Before the Brute could move to investigate further, there was another **_whump-crack_** of displaced air, and suddenly Summer’s vision was blocked by waving red cloth and rose petals.

Looking up, Summer blinked in surprise as she realised that her apparent saviour was someone wearing a blood-red cloak not dissimilar to her own, the cloth having a hood that covered the back of their head and fell almost all the way to the ground.

The only other details she could see was the interlocking silver plates that covered the figure’s shoulders and upper back, as well as some sort of thick black fur that lined the edges of the cloak.

On arm was extended out, revealing a similarly silver-plated gauntlet that held a large, boxy red, black and silver sword. The edge of the weapon’s blade was stained with fresh blood, and despite herself, Summer couldn’t quite take her eyes off where the blood was dripping off the tip of the blade, staining the snow bellow red.

“I’m only going to say this once,” Her saviour spoke. A woman, Summer assumed from her voice, her words quiet, yet reverberating in their intensity. “Surrender, and I’ll spare your life.”

The thick red cloak blocked Summer’s vision of the Brute, so she couldn’t see what the large man did, but her saviour shifted her feet slightly, sliding one foot back and leaning forward slightly.

“Good,” Her saviour spoke again, her voice dropping to sounding something viciously pleased. “I was hoping for that.”

Barely a heartbeat later, and the red cloaked woman moved, darting forwards at a startling speed with rose petals trailing in her wake. The action also revealing that the Brute was striding towards them with both of his retractable claws fully extended, and Summer watched on with a mixture of fear and hope as he raised a clawed fist in preparation to strike the cloaked woman running towards him.

As the two met, the cloaked woman spun on her heel, twisting herself around to bring her sword up in an overhead block that prevented the Brute’s claws from striking her across the face, before reversing her momentum to bring her sword around and counter the man’s second strike with his other clawed hand.

Continuing the motion, the woman ducked under the man’s overextended arm and pulled her sword with her, the sound of the man’s claws scraping against the woman’s oversized sword screeching out, even as the Brute twisted to follow her.

What followed next was a flurry of blows and blocks from both sides, Summer’s eyes barely managing to keep track of them as the woman in red danced around the larger man with an ease born of long experience. Using the weight of her sword to add extra momentum to her strikes, avoiding more than blocking as she aimed for the Brute’s arms and legs.

After a few minutes of high-speed combat, the two broke apart, the red cloaked woman unharmed but breathing steadily as she backed away, continuing to circle the Brute as she hefted her sword up onto her shoulder.

“You’re strong.” The Brute commented, casting a brief glance at the few rapidly healing cuts on his arms. “And fast. But that sword is not your chosen weapon.”

The woman’s hood still obscured her features, but Summer thought she could see a few locks of brown hair swaying free, framing a narrow and pale chin.

Casually rolling her shoulders as she shifted her weapon’s weight, the hooded woman candidly replied. “Eh, swordplay was always my partner’s forte.” Before she stepped forward and once again disappeared in a cloud of rose petals, with a now signature **_whump-crack._**

The Brute barely had time to raise his arms before she reappeared above and behind him, rose petals exploding out from under her cloak as her sword, already in motion, came down on the Brute’s shoulder, the blade angled towards his exposed neck.

In an impressive display of reflexes and dexterity, the Brute leaned his body forwards, moving with the momentum of the blade at his neck, and managed to avoid losing his head with a twist of his whole body.

The large blade still cut into his shoulder, the large man grunting in pain as his aura flared to protect him.

Twisting in place, Summer found herself struggling to keep up with their movements as they twisted around each other, blades being deflected and parried, before the Brute managed to bring one of his enormous legs up in a sweeping kick and finally managed to connect a hit to her saviour’s knees.

With a cry of pain, the woman fell down in a controlled half roll that took her away from the Brute’s follow up heel kick, coming up in a defensive stance as she visibly kept her weight off of her left knee.

Again the fight paused, both fighters taking slow breathes as they once again began to circle each other.

“This fight is pointless.” The Brute grunted. “There is no need for more bloodshed.”

Summer half expected her saviour to agree, the ginger way she placed weight back onto her leg indicated to her that it was the site of a previous injury. Likely one that had been caused whilst the woman hadn’t had any aura, and therefore had never healed properly.

“Not a chance,” The cloaked woman’s voice rang with a bitter steel. “I plan to leave you in _pieces_ for what you and that Faunus bitch were about to do.”

That response had the brute of a man pausing in his movement, and from the slight cocking of his head, something in the statement apparently caught his curiosity.

“She means something to you.” He stated. “You never intended to let me leave alive.”

In response, the brunette once again disappeared in a cloud of rose petals, leaving the Brute with the reply of rushing air and a sonic boom.

This time the Brute was smarter, and Summer watched him immediately duck his head, bringing his arms up to protect his throat even as he swivelled on the balls of his feet, clearly expecting another strike at his neck.

Which meant that when Summer’s saviour burst into being on the Brute’s left, sword already in motion and sweeping low across the ground in a powerful arc, the Brute’s legs were entirely unprotected.

Unable to react in time, the Brute was forced to take the hit to the back of his knee, aura once again flaring to absorb the blow. Though even as the force of the strike buckled his leg and sent the man down in an awkward fall, the Brute managed to convert it into a roll that allowed him to avoid a second strike aimed at his mid-section.

Lashing out with a large foot, the woman in red was sent flying as the Brute attempted to wright himself, but with a customary burst of rose petals, the brunette was back on him in an instant, her blade singing through the air.

Another flurry of strikes, blocks and counters ensued. This time the Brute managing to hold the woman off long enough to get back onto his feet, and it was becoming pretty clear to Summer that while the Brute may have the advantage in close combat, the cloaked woman’s semblance, either a teleportation, transmutation or a speed enhancement she wasn’t sure, gave her an extreme advantage.

An advantage proven true when halfway through a swing of her sword, the brunette woman phased into rose petals to avoid a clawed fist aimed at her stomach, before reconstituting immediately afterwards to complete her strike.

Summer didn’t know how taxing it was to maintain that level of use, she was too far away and the woman was moving too fast for her to gauge how tired the woman was getting, but Summer was fairly sure the cloaked woman’s strikes were getting gradually slower.

Not by much, but enough to be telling. Her saviour wouldn’t be able to keep this level of intensity up forever, and her actions were already shifting to be more defensively oriented. The woman’s injured knee no doubt only exacerbating the woman’s stamina.

Apparently realising this as well, the Brute moved onto the offense, launching into a barrage of savage swipes and lunges, each intended to cause as much physical harm to Summer’s saviour as possible, with more than a few leg strikes aimed at the woman’s left knee.

In response, the brunette backed off. But instead of retreating further like Summer expected, she drew something from beneath her cloak and pointed it at the Brute.

Summer didn’t even have enough time to realise that it was a gun before the woman fired, five rounds fired in rapid succession, the flares of red and purple that flashed across the Brute’s body as he was forced back telling Summer that her saviour was firing a mixture of Fire and Gravity Dust.

On the fifth bullet, Summer spotted the tell-tale flash of white that indicated the Brute’s aura had finally broken, and in a blur of movement, the woman in red shot forwards.

Barely having seconds to react, the Brute had enough time to straighten himself upright before the front end of the woman’s sword burst through his chest, Summer watching with muted relief as the woman ran the Brute through from behind.

The fight was rather clearly over, with the Brute feebly grasping at the blade fatally protruding from his chest. The woman, leaving her sword where it was, walked round and stood in front of him.

From where she was sitting, Summer couldn’t hear what they said, if anything at all, but the woman in red reached to her hip, drew her enormous pistol, and pressed it firmly against the man’s forehead.

Summer had just enough warning to close her eyes, before one final gunshot rang out.

In the sudden silence that followed, Summer kept her eyes closed. She had never enjoyed the bloodshed that came along with her job, much preferring the mindless slaughter of Grimm to the combat of other souls.

At the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, she tentatively opened her eyes again, and Summer watched as her saviour approached. Her sword poked out over her shoulder, seemingly sheathed for the time being.

Finally facing her at a closer range, Summer tried to finally get a look at her apparent saviour. Unfortunately, her eyes refused to focus properly, and the woman’s cloak only further obscured the woman’s features.

“Hey, hey! Can you hear me? You’re okay. You’re safe now.”

Opening her mouth to speak, Summer instead felt her stomach lurch as the world spun around her, and it was only thanks to a pair of armoured hands suddenly appearing at her side did she not pitch over onto her side.

“Shit.” The woman’s voice was panicked now. “Oh nonononononononono, please. Oum, please. Don’t do this to me, not now.”

With a weak groan, Summer shivered. From her new position, she could now see where her once pure white cloak and the snow around her had been stained deep red, almost perfectly matching the other woman’s cloak as her saviour gently laid her down on her back.

“Holy… Okay, focus. Focus you dolt.” The woman seemed to be talking to herself now, a thin layer of calm falling over her panicked voice. “First step… the first step is to ascertain the damage.”

Summer wasn’t an idiot, she knew how much blood someone of her size could afford to lose before they succumbed to blood-loss. And the numb feeling spreading throughout her limbs wasn’t a great indicator either, probably something to do with the wound she sustained from the Faunus’ scorpion tail.

“Second step, prevent life threatening injuries from worsening… Shit. That’s a lot of blood.”

At the feeling of someone putting a hand on her chest, Summer looked up, trying to focus on where her saviour’s face should be, to see their eyes. The blurriness made such a task all but impossible, and for the first time in years Summer let herself cry.

“Third step, stabilise…” Summer heard the woman stifle a sob. “Stabilise the injury. Which is… Fuck. With what?”

There was the sound of tearing fabric, and Summer felt a searing pain as something was pressed against the small of her back.

She didn’t want to die. Not now.

She had too much to live for, too much depending on her to… to…

“Come on, come on. Please work. Oh please Oum, let this work!”

Not without Tai…  Not with Yang…

“Please… hold on. I’m here to save you.”

Silver Eyes glowed in the darkness.

“Mom!?”

_Ruby…?_

The darkness consumed her whole.

**Author's Note:**

> This one didn't quite write as smoothly as Peacekeeper. I literally wrote this one, didn't like the OC's in it, wrote an entirely new one, didn't like it either, returned to this one and edited a bunch and cut it into two parts.  
> The second part will be from Qrow's perspective, and have more Yang in it... I've been neglecting her a bit.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think, or just screech at me again and leave. Either way!


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